A relaxing drive in the countryside: what could possibly go wrong? You certainly won’t end up thoroughly lost, before winding up broken down on the side of the road with no phone reception or navigation signal to speak of. And this definitely won’t be taking place in an isolated hamlet with a slight whiff of Tasmanian horror movie vibes about it. Absolutely not.
None of that will go down if it’s already 2pm and you haven’t yet managed to make it out of town because you had to attend to your car’s tyres. Hobart didn’t have any service centres that could fit you in until after midday, and now there seems to be a serious problem with your wheel alignment that looks set to throw your plans into jeopardy. And when I say ‘you’, I actually mean me. I’m the one with the car troubles, in case you hadn’t guessed.
I’m starting to get annoyed that I’m missing out on my Tasmanian horror movie experience, which would be well and truly underway by now if I hadn’t done the responsible thing and had my car looked at by a mechanic before setting off. I can see it now: I’d be pulled over on some country road or another, freaking out about the GPS situation and wondering how I’m going to get home before nightfall – all without another motorist in sight, with the exception of that weird-looking guy in the ute who drives past every ten minutes to gawk unhelpfully.
All things considered, maybe it is worth my while to pursue these car repairs. Hobart is such a cosy, convenient city that it’s easy to forget how much of a bother it would be to be stranded outside of it – especially now, on the verge of winter. The idea of spending the night in a car is literally bone-chilling.
When all is said and done, it’s probably best to do country drives in a car that’s reliably going to work.